New Porsche 918 Spyder Sets Speed Record

9/13/2013 5:49PM

One week before serial production, Porsche's 918 Spyder, a gas-electric plug-in hybrid, set a course speed record at the infamous Nurburgring motorsports complex. WSJ's "Rumble Seat" columnist Dan Neil weighs in on the secrets to the Spyder's success.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... I ... sure the rivers ... Mr. journey's why ... is the theme directory Motorsports complex including the top twenty miles hundred seventy quarters of the torchlight ... that our courts ... Pearson forested rollercoaster also known as the pre ... dating back to the wider public the torchlight is the ultimate validation test of a super sports cars performance in recent decades automakers to build a small city of Caracas and hangers around the track from which to attack the river ... yesterday that are the Porsche nine hundred turbo RS gets around in the next twenty four cents a full restocked by for a truck tire gets around and seven well up for its ... second twenty five ... on Wednesday September four during a closed testing session exactly two weeks before cereal production begins Porsche's eight hundred and eighty seven horsepower gas electric plug in hybrid ... the nineteen teens by her center production Carlette record of six minutes fifty seven seconds ... shattering standing record previously owned by the copper Apollo at seven eleven ... the nineteen eighties the ... production car ever written ... there are a ... I ... I ... the sixty s record is jaunty figure at which the smokescreen to meet the world's greatest sports car Ferrari ... LaFerrari ... McLaren people ... must be ... technology longer approved its fourth ... Street ... on race tracks the performance potential is coming into force with electrically assisted dynamics such as all wheel drive with its for one or for that ... like all high grades nine eighteen seats for a kilowatt hour battery is heavy ... the powertrains hybrid model to six hundred and sixty pounds of the car's thirty seven hundred ... but by nature these components to the posted speed maps can be located compact ... discs in ... an extremely low in attacks ... the next level cricket and were hoping for ... the tiny teen center of gravity is seven inches lower ... portion outlets ... this year's program ... the team has five Try Men's from all electric ... two the so called hot laps ... ETH by pressing on with it but ... steer ... this authorizes the hybrid system to fully discharge the battery ... at a maximum rate of two hundred and twenty kilowatts not quite three or four top ... that's a pretty staggering amount of electricity it's like what ... all this makes for one amazing really ... but subsequent labs will be as facts ... it appears an artistic flaw to this far ... it's that it's ... best for one lap of their ... in the second love ... not so great ... this is the new reporting for The Wall Street Journal ...